


Family Feud

by rancheel



Series: When You Depart From Me Sorrow Abides, and Happiness Takes His Leave [17]
Category: British Actor RPF, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, First Break-Ups, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Teen Angst, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-30 20:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20102872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rancheel/pseuds/rancheel
Summary: Tom and Noelle's eldest is in need of some assistance on dealing with her first break up.





	Family Feud

“Did you shave?” Noelle questioned suddenly when she felt her husband’s hands gently resting on her hips as she stood in front of the stove top, checking on some of the food she started to cook for dinner a bit later in the evening.

Tom seemed to be taken aback for a moment as he moved to rest his chin on Noelle’s shoulder.

“How did you even figure that out before you saw my face?”

“You put on a bit too much aftershave,” Noelle quipped casually, a small smirk settling onto her face, Tom letting out a soft chuckle before squeezing Noelle’s hips in his hands.

“Am I to be offended by that sentence?”

“I don’t know, are yo—”

Noelle was cut off by the front door slamming all of a sudden, the sound of Bobby’s barks and Jackson calling out for his sister.

Tom was quick to peel away from Noelle as both of them looked at the arch way of the kitchen.

“Steph?” Tom called as he started to back track, making his way into the living room as Noelle tried to quickly finish checking the rest of the food to the best of her ability before she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and another door upstairs slamming shut.

Noelle navigated to the living room, leaning on the back of their couch to lean over to press a kiss to her son’s head.

“Hey Jacks,” Noelle started casually as she eyed the Shakespeare book Tom must have recommended him. He hummed in response before Bobby started to try and get Noelle’s attention.

“Where’s dad and Stephanie?”

“Upstairs somewhere, I dunno,” He replied distractedly, shifting a bit. Noelle tried not to let out a laugh at his reaction that was _ exactly _ like his father, pressing one last kiss to his head of dark ginger curls before giving Bobby a few scratches under his chin and heading up the stairs carefully.

Noelle was greeted by her tall, lanky husband sitting against the wall next to Stephanie’s bedroom door, looking completely saddened as he clicked a pen he held in his hand.

Noelle shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweat pants she chose to wear for the day, gently kicking Tom’s ankle once she got closer to him down the hall.

“You alright, superstar?”

Tom glanced her way with a small laugh just as the clicking stopped before finally getting himself off of the floor.

“She won’t answer me through the door or slide back notes,” Tom explained quietly once he was closer to Noelle. Noelle rose a brow as she tilted her head up to look at Tom’s worried face.

“Where’d you get paper from for notes?”

“I ran to our room quick to rip out some paper from a notebook and grab a pen,” Tom explained in an exasperated tone as he held up the pen and waved it around for a moment before pocketing it in the pair of jeans he wore.

Noelle let out a slow sigh.

“Okay, how about I try and get her to talk and you keep an eye on the food and the demons downstairs?”

Tom didn’t reply for a moment as one hand moved to Noelle’s waist, the other rubbing at the side of his face where a beard would have been if he didn’t shave just earlier.

Exhaling in defeat, he finally gave in with a small squeeze on Noelle’s waist before pressing a quick kiss on her forehead, a worried look still on his face.

“_Fine_. But if I end up getting sacrificed between now and then, you and Stephanie have to carry on the torch with that is my legacy.”

Noelle rolled her eyes dramatically and got up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his lips, sliding past him to walk closer to their daughter’s door.

“Shut up and get down there. Don’t let the garlic bread burn this time.”

Tom did a small salute accompanied by a convincing smile before he moved to disappear down the stairs.

Noelle let out a soft breath before walking a bit closer to Stephanie’s door now, gently knocking.

“Stephanie?”

She swore she heard sniffling on the other side of that door. 

“It’s just me now, your father’s back downstairs with Jackson and Bobby, making sure that the garlic bread doesn’t burn like he let it last time.” Noelle’s back was pressed against the wood now before she started to slide down to sit against it and keep talking.

“Dad said you weren’t replying to his notes. I don’t blame you, truthfully. I can still barely read his handwriting and I’ve been with him for a while now,” Noelle teased gently, hearing a wet sounding laugh from she assumed across the room.

Progress. Good progress. _ God she wishes her mother was here so she could ask how to handle this better. _

Noelle felt like she was in a commercial. It all felt a little cliché to her.

She could hear footsteps coming from what had to be the bed.

“Don’t tell your father or brother this, but I was thinking of having a little ice cream run tonight after Jackson’s gone to bed, like we do every now and again? They just built some new place a few streets away—”

Noelle’s breath caught in her throat as she fell back onto the floor of her daughter’s thankfully carpeted room, the door now wide open as she laid completely straight on the floor, looking up at her daughter’s teary, red rimmed blue eyes.

She was still wearing her sweater and skinny jeans with holes in them.

“Hey, lovebug.”

Sophie tried to crack a smile as she looked down at her mother’s head that lay on top of her sock clad feet.

“Hi.”

Noelle was quick to sit up and spin around completely on the hardwood floor of the hallway, patting the carpet between them both, noticing that Stephanie held a pillow tight in her arms with some of her makeup starting to smudge and drip slightly from the tears she had been shedding.

“What’s happened?” Noelle questioned gently once Stephanie accompanied her on the floor, still holding her pillow tight.

Stephanie let out a slow, long breath. It was shaky, but Noelle was more than sure to keep her attention on her daughter and let her know that she was here to listen.

“Actually, before you answer that,” Noelle started, noticing Stephanie’s shoulders lose some tension, “what did you do with your father’s notes? I’m curious what he attempted to write down.”

Stephanie let out a small giggle at that and carefully leaned over to reach up to grab the small jagged pieces of paper from the edge of her dresser, holding them out to Noelle.

It took her a second to notice her daughter’s nails were half painted.

“Did you and Janine not finish girls day?” Noelle questioned softly, confused as she started to unfold what she could only assume was her husbands horrific job of trying to make an origami heart. She also noticed it was paper from _ her _ notebook.

He’s treading on thin ice now.

“Uh, no. No we didn’t,” Stephanie admitted after she moved a little closer to Noelle.

Noelle frowned before throwing down the notes Tom wrote, shifting to lean up against the doorframe of the hall and Stephanie’s room and gently tug her daughter into her side.

“Do I need to pull a Sarah on her—”

“Mum, you’re _ not _ in any shape to do stunts from your films right now, and you know it,” Stephanie said firmly, sniffling as the pad of her thumb skimmed just under her eye probably not to mess up her eye makeup more.

Noelle let out a dramatic gasp and removed her arm from her shoulder, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Wow! And to think, I was going to sneak you out to get ice cream!”

Stephanie started to laugh a bit more, her pillow now landing on her lap as her head fell to Noelle’s shoulder.

“Sorry. Sorry! Okay, _maybe_ you can pull a Sarah, but not on Janine.”

Noelle rose a brow and looked over at Stephanie.

“Who am I to fight with my assassin training then?” She questioned carefully, starting to think about who could possibly have hurt her daughter enough to have her come home in this state.

Stephanie definitely hesitated.

Noelle was determined to let her daughter take her time instead of pressing questions continually to her.

They had all day.

Well, until dinner. There was garlic bread being made, and all of the Hiddleston’s will more than likely fight for what they can.

“It’s Tate.” Stephanie sounded as if she was being held underwater and finally broke to the surface for air.

Noelle tried to fight back the urge to tense up. She has more assumptions as to why her little girl was crying now.

“Why Tate? What did he do? Do me and your father—”

“No! No!” Stephanie cut off her mother quickly, her hands flying up to punctuate what she was saying. “Well... maybe? I don’t know! He and I just..”

Noelle wrapped her arms around her daughter the best she could as she waited for her to continue, calming herself down in the process. 

_ I thought we agreed no pressing questions, _ Noelle’s brain chimed in as she rested her cheek against her daughter’s head as she started to cry into her hands. Noelle started rocking the both of them gently as Stephanie shed a few more tears.

A few minutes later after Stephanie stopped crying once more, Noelle moved her head so Stephanie could rest her head up against her side of the doorframe, sniffling hard before tilting her head a bit just as Noelle pushed some of her daughter’s hair back from her face.

“We broke up.”

Noelle went through a few emotional stages in that instance.

First anger, followed by the sudden need to risk getting her name plastered on papers for assaulting a teenager by paparazzi. Then worry and a pang of hurt for her daughter. She can still recall what her first break up was like, and that _really_ hurts, especially if it was someone who you thought you loved so much.

“Oh, lovebug..” Noelle started softly, a gentle frown on her face as she looked back at Stephanie who just chuckled humorlessly for a brief moment. 

“I should ‘ave seen it coming, really,” she started, finally wiping her eyes with the heels of her hands, “he seemed a lot more distant than usual.”

Noelle let out a soft sigh, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Are you _sure_ you don’t need me to assassinate him or anything?”

Stephanie let out a genuine laugh, shaking her head as she turned to completely look at her mother now.

“Nah, mum. I think you’re good.”

Stephanie and Noelle shared the silence of the hallway, the both of them faintly hearing what sounded like Tom and Jackson giggling and conversing about the Shakespeare book Jackson was reading.

Stephanie finally spoke up after a while.

“We’re still going to that new nice cream place, right?”

Noelle laughed fondly as she let her head fall back to thunk into the doorframe, nodding.

“Yes, Steph, we can still do that tonight if you’re up for it. I’ll even snag you an extra piece of garlic bread tonight.”

“Even if dad tries to convince you to give him more?”

“I made enough to compensate for that if it happens. Your father did have lunch with the Cumberbatch’s today,” Noelle explained, a soft smile graced her features as she noticed Stephanie starting to look a little better, even if her eye makeup made her look like a racoon.

“You say that as if he won’t eat _ all _ of the garlic bread you make!”

“It was one time, Steph! I can’t help that he’s addicted to garlic bread!” Noelle exclaimed back just as dramatic as Stephanie before they both dissolved into giggles.

**Author's Note:**

> I really felt up to doing a little thing with Noelle and Tom having kids, but I also really wanted to do a piece based on the topic of grief. I chose Toelle having kids since I know I would cry way less while writing.
> 
> I feel bad for my absence, but grief is a current process I'm still learning to go through as of May, which is why things have been less frequent. I think while pushing out requests from my tumblr and extra content in any way I could to ignore it, I've ended up burning myself out. I also think that this is the first time in three months that I've liked what I first wrote so much to just go ahead and post it without any heavy editing, actually. It feels nice for once. I have started on more Toelle projects, and I would love to post teasers of them on here, but I feel this site isn't for that, so I guess that idea may have to stay in my brain bucket.
> 
> Thank you for sticking with me and reading this little update of sorts!


End file.
